Blueberry plant denominated &#39;liberty&#39;

ABSTRACT

Liberty is a new blueberry variety of  Vaccinium corymbosum.  It is a productive, very late ripening variety with high fresh market quality intended for areas where northern highbush varieties are grown successfully. Plants of Liberty are vigorous and upright. Canes are numerous, moderately branched and the fruit are well exposed. Its berries are moderately large, have small, dry picking scars, excellent powder-blue color, delicious flavor and excellent firmness. Liberty has a harvest season that begins about 5 days before the variety known as “Elliott.”

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is related to the present inventor's UnitedStates patent applications entited “Blueberry plant denominated‘Aurora,’” filed on even date as Attorney Docket No. 6550-000073, and“Blueberry plant denominated ‘Draper,’” filed on even date as AttorneyDocket No. 6550-000075. Both of these applications are also assigned tothe assignee of the present application. The disclosures of the aboveapplications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

LATIN NAME AND VARIETY DENOMINATION

[0002] The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety ofVaccinium corymbosum, which is hereby denominated “Liberty.”

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety ofhighbush blueberry plant, denominated “Liberty.” Liberty is a newblueberry variety of Vaccinium corymbosum from the Michigan StateUniversity breeding program. It is a productive, very late ripeningvariety with high fresh market quality that is intended for areas wherenorthern highbush varieties are grown successfully. Plants of Libertyare vigorous and upright. Canes are numerous, moderately branched andthe fruit are well exposed. Its berries are moderately large, havesmall, dry picking scars, excellent powder-blue color, delicious flavorand excellent firmness. Liberty has a harvest season that begins about 5days before the variety known as “Elliott.” Blueberry growers oftenreceive their highest profits in the late season. Liberty will providetwo new late ripening options with high quality fruit.

[0004] Emasculated flowers of the “Brigetta” highbush blueberry fromAustralia were pollinated in 1991 with pollen from the northern highbushvariety Elliott. The seeds were germinated, grown in a greenhouse for 1year and then field planted at Benton Harbor, Mich. Liberty was selectedfrom a group of 54 siblings in 1997. The original selection has beenevaluated at Benton Harbor, Mich. annually for 11 years. Liberty hasbeen propagated by hardwood cuttings that produced over a hundred shootsthat were rooted in the greenhouse and then planted in the field. Inaddition, Liberty has been propagated by softwood cuttings that havebeen rooted. Furthermore, generation of micro-shoots in the greenhouseusing established tissue culture methods has produced thousands ofclones of Liberty. Such methods are discussed in the followingreferences, which are incorporated by reference in their entirety:Doran, W. L. and Bailey, J. S. “Propagation of the high bush blueberryby softwood cuttings,” Bulletin Massachusetts Agricultural ExperimentStation; no. 410. Amherst, Mass. Massachusetts State College, 1943;Doehlert, C. A. “Propagating blueberries from hardwood cuttings,”Circular (New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station) 490. NewBrunswick, N.J. New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, 1945;Doehlert, C. A. “Propagating blueberries from hardwood cuttings,”Circular (New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station) 551. NewBrunswick, N.J.: New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, 1953; ElShiekh, A.; Wildung, D. K.; Luby, J. J.; Sargent, K. L.; Read, P. E.“Long term effects of propagation by tissue culture or softwood singlenode cuttings on growth habit, yield, and berry weight of ‘Northblue’blueberry,” Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.1996, 121: 2, 339 342; Galletta, G. J.; Ballington, J. R.; Daubeny, H.A.; Brennan, R. M.; Reisch, B. J.; Pratt, C.; Ferguson, A. R.; Seal, A.G.; McNeilage, M. A.; Fraser, L. G.; Harvey, C. F.; Beatson, R. A.;Hancock, J. F.; Scott, D. H.; Lawrence, F. J.; Janick, J. (ed.); Moore,J. N. “Fruit breeding. Volume II. Vine and small fruits,” Department ofHorticulture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. 1996 John Wileyand Sons; New York; USA; Strik, B.; Brun, C.; Ahmedullah, M.; Antonelli,A.; Askham, L.; Barney, D.; Bristow, P.; Fisher, G.; Hart, J.; Havens,D. Draper A. D. and Chandler C. K. “Accelerating highbush blueberryselection evaluation by early propagation,” Journal of the AmericanSociety for Horticultural Science. 1986 111(2): 301-303; Pritts M. P.and Hancock J. F. (Eds.) “Highbush blueberry production guide,”Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, Ithaca, N.Y., USA1992.

[0005] Clones of Liberty have been tested for four years at GrandJunction, Mich., and for two years at South Haven, Mich., Lacota, Mich,Corvallis, Oreg., and Lowell, Oreg. In all cases all resulting plantshave stably displayed characteristics of the variety. Consistent highyields at Benton Harbor and Grand Junction, Mich. indicate that the budsand wood of Liberty are tolerant to fluctuating late fall and springtemperatures. Liberty also has excellent winter hardiness, as it hasroutinely been challenged with mid-winter temperatures below −20 C.Probable areas of adaptation and markets include blueberry growers inMichigan and across the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Chile,France, Germany, and New Zealand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] The present invention will become more fully understood from thedetailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0007]FIG. 1 is a photographic print in full color of exemplary4-year-old Liberty blueberry plants. Two plants are shown, one in theleft foreground and a portion of a second plant in the right foreground.The plants appearing in the background are of a different variety andare not part of the Aurora blueberry plants, nor is the grass appearingin the picture part of the Aurora blueberry plants.

[0008]FIG. 2 is a photographic print in full color illustratingexemplary fruit clusters of a 4-year-old Liberty blueberry plant. Someof the fruit is not yet mature and does not show the characteristicmature color.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

[0009] The following a is detailed botanical description of the new anddistinct variety of blueberry, its flowers, fruit and foliage, based onobservations of specimens grown at Benton Harbor Mich. and GrandJunction, Mich. over four years, and at South Haven, Mich.., Lacota,Mich., Corvallis, Oreg., and Lowell, Oreg., over a two year period. Thetaxonomic characteristics chosen in the detailed description arestandard in the practice (R E Gough, R J Hindle, and V G Shutak,“Identification of Ten Highbush Blueberry Cultivars using MorphologicalCharacteristics,” HortScience 11 (5): 512-4, 1976). Color descriptions,except those given in common terms, are presented in Royal HorticulturalSociety Colour Chart designations. In cases where the color descriptionscited from The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart differ from thecolors shown in the drawings, the colors cited from The RoyalHorticultural Society Colour Chart should be considered accurate. Anydeviation from these colors in the drawings is due to failure of thephotographic process to exactly duplicate the colors of nature. Inaddition, fruit color designations in Table I are applicable only tomature fruit. TABLE I Liberty Characteristics Characteristic LibertyBush Mature height 1.5 m Diameter/width 1.4 Growth habit Upright tosemi-spreading Annual renewal canes 5-6 Internode length on 2.5 cmspring shoots Mature cane color Greyed-Green (198A) Fall color-newshoots Patches of Red-Purple (60A) Foliage Leaf shape Elliptic-ovateLeaf length/width 2.1 Leaf serration Serrated Pubescence None Color-topGreen (137A) Color-bottom Green (138A) Petiole length   4 mm BlossomsShape of corolla Elongate-urceolata Calyx 5 lobed Style length At edgeof corolla Color of open flower Mostly white Flower # per cluster 8-10Mature Fruit Shape Globose, uniform Color with bloom Violet Blue (98A)Color without bloom Blue (103A) Pedicel scar size 1.44 mm Average weight1.5 gm

[0010] In trials in Michigan and Oregon, Liberty has consistently hadbetter color, was firmer and had a better picking scar than Elliott(Tables II and III). They also had greatly improved flavor. In severalpost-harvest trials, the relative fruit rot susceptibility of theElliott and Liberty genotypes was similar and good (Table IV). Libertyproved to have a dramatically longer storage life than Elliott in 2000and a slightly longer one in 2001. It is not known why Liberty stored somuch better in 2000 than 2001 and 2002, except that temperatures duringthe harvest period were exceptionally hot in the latter two years. TABLEII Characteristics of mature ‘Liberty’ in comparison to ‘Elliott’ atBenton Harbor, MI in 2001 and 2002. All values were the same in bothyears, except for harvest date. The rating scale was 1-9, with 1-4 =inferior, 5-6 = acceptable, 7 = good, 8 = very good and 9 = superior.Traits Liberty Elliott Horticultural Date of first harvest 8/18 and 8/228/23 and 8/27 Fruit load 7 8 Size 7 6 Color 8 6 Picking scar 8 7Firmness 8 7 Flavor 8 5 Taxonomy Leaf margin serrated entire Leaf shapeelliptic- elliptic ovate Leaf length/width ratio >2 <2 Bushdiameter/width 1.4 1.4 ratio Fall color on 1-year red and solid redshoots green Bark texture-mature rough and rough wood flacky

[0011] TABLE III Mean fruit ratings of ‘Liberty’ and ‘Elliott’ at GrandJunction, MI, Corvallis, OR and Lowell, OR in 2002. Plants were set astwo-year-old rooted cuttings in 2000. Evaluations were made when thebushes were 50% ripe. Fruit Picking Location Cultivar load Size Colorscar Firmness Flavor Grand Liberty  7^(z) 7 8 8 8 8 Junction Elliott 8 66 7 7 5 Corvallis Liberty 8 7 8 8 8 8 Elliott 9 6 7 7 7 6 Lowell Liberty8 7 8 8 8 8 Elliott 9 6 7 7 7 6

[0012] TABLE IV Postharvest storage life and fungal rots of ‘Elliott’and ‘Liberty’ harvested at Benton Harbor, MI. Fruit were picked on thesame day, when the bushes were 30-40% ripe. Determinations LibertyElliott Percentage of fruit rotted^(X) 2000  4% 12% 2001 16% 12% 200211% 10% Types of fruit rots in 2002^(Y) Alternaria 6 6 Colletotrichum 24 Botrytis 2 0 Storage life (days)^(Z) 2000 35  7 2001 14  7 2002 7 7

[0013] Elliott and Liberty have high contents of phenolics andantioxidants relative to other blueberry varieties. A comparison ofphenolics and antioxidants of various blueberry varieties is provided inTable V. TABLE V Mean values for antioxidant activity, total phenoliccontent and anthocyanin content of fully ripe, fresh blueberries(Source - Conner, A. M., J. J. Luby, J. F. Hancock, S. Berkheimer and E.J. Hanson. 2002. J. Agric. Food Chem. 50: 893-898. Antioxidant PhenolicAnthocyanin Cultivar activity^(x) content^(y) content^(z) Bluecrop 11.1402 123 Bluegold 13.1 492 181 Brigetta 9.0 335 132 Elliott 14.3 515 191Jersey 7.8 336 121 Legacy 12.2 470 143 Liberty 14.2 494 202 Nelson 9.0376 93 Tukey's HSD 3.7 118 52

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct highbush blueberry plant,substantially as illustrated and described herein.